Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Word of Faith vs. Shield of Faith



‘Man can do nothing apart from God,’ John MacArthur warned. It is a doctrine few want to hear these days and yet one we all need to hear.
Indeed, those in authority over today’s church, the WCC, the denominational heads, the pastors the preachers and the teachers, are pushing—subtly, oh so subtly—for this shift from divine accomplishment to human achievement. Listen carefully to megachurch pastors and you'll see. Admittedly it is much more gratifying to think that we are capable of altering reality merely by speaking certain words of power, than to wait on a supreme being who is both complex and willful, and whose will does not always align with our own. (This belief of altering reality by speaking certain words, btw, is called the Law of Words of Power, and it is one of the so-called laws of magick as put forth by a magician and adapted for fantasy role-playing gamers. Its cousin teaching is the Law of Positive Attraction, which basically states that the universe returns to you the sort of energy—negative or positive—that you put out. Yeah.)
‘Divine accomplishment is true biblical Christianity; all other religions are based on some form of human achievement.’ That’s another quote by MacArthur. Since I am not familiar with every single religion in the world today, I cannot be sure of the veracity of his claim, but either way his point remains valid. According to 2 Timothy 1:9 ‘God called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.’
It is clear from a complete and thorough reading of the Bible that God is the author and finisher of our faith, that He is the creator and savior, and that He takes an active role in the events of history, yesterday, today and forever. Not us.
Prominent preachers are spewing crap about ‘positive confession’ and the ‘power of I am’ when they should be preaching repentance and the power of God!
The heretical word of faith movement is man’s deplorable attempt to steal the thunder of God for himself. Preachers of this putrid false doctrine teach that we can take on the divine nature for ourselves, which is itself a twisted variation of Christ endowing us with the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the very name of their movement ‘word of faith’ is a rip-off of Roman’s 10:8, taken out of context and of course used without knowledge of the previous and succeeding verses, which, if they read, would explain Paul’s point there, that believing (in God’s grace) with our hearts and confessing (our sins!) with our mouths leads to salvation. Paul was certainly not proclaiming there to be reality-altering power in the words themselves. Whatever power exists, and whatever results come, they are by God’s power and by His grace.
WE DO NOT HAVE POWER WITHIN OURSELVES. Without God’s grace and Christ’s intervention, we are completely powerless. We are powerless to save ourselves. The author and finisher of our faith provided the instructions, the grace, and the forgiveness for us to find salvation.
Let us not be ‘peddlers of God’s Word’ (2 Corinthians 2:17). We must not speak for the approval of people, or preach what they want to hear. We must speak the truth, and continue in it, whether convenient or not. The word of faith movement does not feed the sheep God’s Word and it does not help them develop a relationship with Him. Rather, it cultivates knowledge of self, which is carnal, and useless to our eternal souls.
Like cult leaders, these false teachers are very clever; they lure you in with their pretty words and specious promises. Do not fall for it! Arm yourself with the shield of faith, with the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, otherwise you will be spiritually defenseless and fall prey to these guru’s, these vultures, these teachers of lies and peddlers of false doctrines.

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